HobbyKing HydroPro Affinity RG65 Racing Yacht

HobbyKing has a nice looking sailboat for newcomers to RG65 racing yachts with the HydroPro Affinity.

For Racing or for Fun

HobbyKing has a nice looking sailboat for newcomers to RG65 racing yachts with the HydroPro Affinity. It actually includes 2 complete racing rigs with mylar sails and only requires you to provide your own radio and battery to complete it. The Affinity costs $179 which is a fantastic deal. It has a heavy duty sail winch, a metal gear rudder servo and a display stand. The hull is molded in plastic and the mast and booms are made with carbon fiber tubes. The price is right and this yacht should be a great first sailboat for many out there looking for a new hobby.

Only available from GLOBAL warehouse.

Beware of very high shipping cost.

A decent little boat. Manufactured by Joysway. Very well made. Sails very nicely. However, really not competitive in the RG65 class. I bought mine at $91 price with lower shipping from domestic warehouse. It was a bargain back then.

Now...the DF65 is a better buy. Built by the same company, with same quality. Same item price with much less shipping cost. And much better racing opportunities in the DF65 class.

Why start a new thread when we have one that has more than 48,000 views and hundreds of comments and more than 20 pages of information, pictures and videos ? Should find about anything there you need to know.
Here is a link to that threadhttps://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...28HobbyKing%29

Guys, this is a news article. It’s very different than a normal discussion thread. Think of it like a magazine article. It gets seen in a lot more places than just the forum thread list. Click the magazine link at the top of the page and you’ll see all the articles we wrote about new products, how tos, reviews, etc. These are not paid advertisements, just our team covering the news as we see it.

Guys, this is a news article. It’s very different than a normal discussion thread. Think of it like a magazine article. It gets seen in a lot more places than just the forum thread list. Click the magazine link at the top of the page and you’ll see all the articles we wrote about new products, how tos, reviews, etc. These are not paid advertisements, just our team covering the news as we see it.

Jason
If you review the thread you'll see a similar ad there two. "HobbyKing John" posted images and commented there. I get the thought behind this but it may cause some one to miss all the other solid dialog in the original thread/discussion.
This is not the first one of these advertorials - up to you but it seems a waste - just plaster in at the top of the original thread!
Boomer

It's not an advertorial FYI. I saw the email from HK about it and we need boat news so I decided to write the article. Putting this in the discussion thread does not put it in the magazine channel page, show on the front page of the site or get it in our mass email of magazine content and social media. This is the only way to do that. Yes, users can use this as a discussion thread, often though, we link to the primary thread if we know about one in the news article to send people there. The reply above with that link will suffice. I just wanted you guys to know that RCGroups is more than a forum, we write content every day. Hope that clears up any confusion.

The cost of international shipping is a killer for this boat. If the company actually shipped the boat to a local wharehouse, in my case in Australia, I could purchase the item with free shipping for under $100.00. For that price it would be a bargain. One can actually purchase the fibreglass hull for the "2.2 metre" "Sailor" cruising hull from HK for under $40.00 Aud and this includes both the rudder servo and the drum winch. Alas, when you include the cost of shipping the price exceeds what I could purchase the complete boat for from local suppliers.

I have just completed a Monsoon using the full rig and sails from a Kyosho Seawind and was most impressed with the boat's performance. I did increase the bulb weight to 1500 gms and suffered no blow downs in a stiff breeze.

Don't think you are being very fair on HK. As I said on a previous topic of yours you are trying to buy well past the last production of these Shunbo models. The only ones left are a few in the Global warehouse. HK had plenty in stock in all there warehouses for the last 10 years and the cost in AU was around the $100 mark including shipping when I got mine. The local warehouses obviously have sold out and they will not be restocked.. They were in my opinion a great low cost entry into RC sailing, needed a bit of modding but did sail out of the box with care. The lower cost of plastic hulls has seen the shunbo become obsolete. Unfortunately see today that Victor Models are closing. Have no regrets with any on my Shunbos, had a lot of fun. The sales pitch these days is to buy class compatible, OK but there are still a lot of skippers who just like to sail as a relaxing hobby.

Don't think you are being very fair on HK. ..................................................

I do not understand your point. HK is still listing the boat as available from their HK store. The boat is available locally from another source, so still a market for it. All I stated was that global shipping is expensive and the local wharehouse, just three hours drive from me, does not stock the boat. No criticism, just fact.

Edit: I agree your point as to marketing a product these days with class compliance. Yes, many of us have no interest in racing or club participation and simply enjoy the relaxation of pleasure sailing on our own or maybe with a friend or two. However, the emphasis these days on most forums seems to be that everyone wants to compete and race their boats. Another interest of mine is building fast electric boats. On that forum even though there are a lot of sport boaters (not competition) every response to a question assumes one is going to race a boat and answers accordingly.

When a new sailing boat is released a criticism is it is either not class compliant or will not be competitive. Most will have already done a little research and already understand these points and yet those who compete feel the need to criticise the make. One buying such boats would have already decided the boat was not compliant and so had no intent on racing. Sailing does not have to be competitive and could provide as much pleasure for the non-racing person as the pleasure a competitive person derives from their boat.

I just noticed that the Shunbo "Phantom" is now back instock at HK after a long abscence. Aluminium turnbuckles and metal rigging. The 3 kg sailwinch is obviously a misprint as it is the same as on the Monsoon. They also state "Larger improved reinforced rudder", however looks exactly like the stock Monsoon rudder. The deck hatch also appears very narrow.

Well that is interesting, every reference I have seen to the Phantom and other Shunbos has been discontinued. So looks like Shunbos might rise again. At $200AU delivered not a bad price and fits well into the competition. At that price not worth waiting for them to come to AU warehouse. They also have the TT Volans Trimaran. Hope it is a ver2 as the first release had problems with the buoyancy of the outer hulls from memory. Can understand the Phantom as it sold very well and there is lots of info on modifying it. The Volans was not that popular that I saw. As you say looks like a bit of redesign around the hatch area.